British Gas final bill calculations

Homingcabbage

Hi,

I vacated my previous property at the beginning of April and gave British Gas my final readings. My account was around £675 in credit at this point and my last bill was in November. After about a month they provided a final bill stating I had £140 credit due back to me. I queried the calculations because it was quite unclear on paper how they had calculated this because it went back to February 2023 and included cancelled bills and rebilling over a couple of different time periods. After this they rebilled me again but this time stating I owed them £275. 
Nothing on this makes alot of sense and today I had an online chat where they stated the bill was from my last recorded meter reading (February 2023) through to my latest one. This does make sense but I am still lost on their calculations - can someone look at how I've worked this out and tell me if I'm missing something?!

Bill period Feb 23 - Apr 24 (approx. 425 days)
Electric readings 86270 - 88902 -- 2632 units @ average 26p p/kWh £684.32
Standing charge average 45p -- £191.25

Gas reading 28888 - 29936 -- 1048 units @ average 5.2p p/kWh £54.49
Standing charge average 28p -- £119

Total billable - £1049

I was paying £110 per month over this period so my total payments to them is £1540. 

Does this make sense or have I missed something here that I should still be in credit?

notbritishgas

The gas reading needs converting to kwh.

BarelySentientAI

notbritishgas said:

The gas reading needs converting to kwh.

About 12000kWh?  Assuming metric.

So about £600, not £55.

£55 of gas in a whole year sounds wrong.

MeteredOut

From the details you've provided (assuming the units are kWh), it does look like you built up a net credit of £491 (1540 - 1049) between Feb 23 and Apr 24.

But, what was your account debit/credit position as at Feb 23? Without that, its not possible to state what your closing balance should be.

PeterGr

If you are on a standard variable tariff there could be 5 or 6 different rates that apply, from Feb 2023 to Apr 2024 and consumption for each period is needed to get an accurate calculation.  You also need calorific values used in each period, and also make sure VAT is applied to your figures.

BooJewels

It's very possible that them stating you owe £275 is correct - it's certainly plausible by my back of an envelope calcs.  As pointed out already, your gas calculation is definitely wrong - it's priced per kWh, but measured in m³ - there's a conversion factor of roughly x11.2.

At my prices with BG today, that gas usage of 1048 m³ (=11670kWh) for 425 days would be £829.90 - using that number would give rise to a debit of £165.47 (total billable of £1,705.47 - £1,540 payments) - assuming that all of your other numbers are correct.  But gas prices were quite a bit higher during some of the period covered, so a debit of £275 is quite plausible.  But that's assuming a zero starting balance - that needs to be accounted for too, as @MeteredOut mentioned.

Homingcabbage

Thank you all - I thought I might be missing something somewhere and it was the gas conversion (I had thought £55 was way too low!). I also hadn't figured VAT into my calculations. The closing balance on my statement in February 2023 was £169 in credit. Thank you for your help - and making alot more sense than BG. I've not had to deal with a bill like this before so apologies if it seemed a bit of a silly question. 

BarelySentientAI

Homingcabbage said:

Thank you all - I thought I might be missing something somewhere and it was the gas conversion (I had thought £55 was way too low!). I also hadn't figured VAT into my calculations. The closing balance on my statement in February 2023 was £169 in credit. Thank you for your help - and making alot more sense than BG. I've not had to deal with a bill like this before so apologies if it seemed a bit of a silly question. 

BG bills often look like nonsense.  You're not the first to come here looking for help understanding them, and I'm sure you won't be the last either.

BooJewels

I'd concur with @BarelySentientAI - I'm fully au fait with my gas usage, take meter readings at least monthly and know how to work out what it will cost - but I have a devil of a job sometimes working out BG's bills and consolidating those with my own numbers - they make them wholly unnecessarily complicated - for reasons that are unfathomable.  They barely make sense - they regularly cancel and re-credit an earlier billed period, then re-bill almost the same period, but using an estimate five days later than a perfectly good reading you already gave them instead - and not even on price change dates - because I always ensure that I give them meter readings at such times.   

It usually works out okay in the end, but doesn't half waste time trying to get to grips with something that could and should be so much simpler.  I've even contemplated a fixed tariff, just to eliminate the need for them to do this billing hokey cokey every time the price changes.

Don't forget that VAT on utility bills is 5%, not 20%.

ETA:  Also the calorific value varies month on month too - that's basically how much heat that particular batch of gas will generate and the consequent amount of kWh of energy you'll get per m³ of gas.  They measure it by volume, but bill by the energy it generates.